Not all of us approach the study of Uechi-ryu the same way. The beauty of a physical art, such as Uechi-ryu, is that it is open to so many interpretations and approaches. When teaching, I try not to impose my viewpoint on students, stressing that one's training should be very individual and personal.

Your studies point to another approach that many may find appropriate to their personalities and needs. Of course, many more will not.

What I find so ironic, is that although your training focuses on the spiritual, your tools involve very physical elements of Uechi-ryu. As a fighting system, what you are doing is just as effective as the more apparent and popular approaches to martial arts.

I Just wanted you to know we are reading your posts and find them most interesting. Most importantly, your studies and research point to one more facet of our multi faceted art, one that is being lost in our fast paced world, where everything must be "instant" and "improved".

Thanks for your comments Gem sensei I fully agree with you .
uechi-ryu must be richer for allowing individuals to express their unque ways ,which in turn can fertilize other lines of research ,such as cross fertilization .But some times things from other lines can be openly rejected .

I dId post a longer reply but lost it ,its quite late now but I will post the gist of that reply .

Allthough I advocate a spiritual type of uechi-ryu and it is primary in me ,a driving force to train for that line of development ,but to train for this special knowledge is needed .
Just by saying I am spiritual does not provide specialized knowledge at all ,such as I feel spiritual etc ,okay its a start .Even state 1 of enlightenment is only a start ,but there is a vast differance between [ state 1 ] and feelings spiritual this must be seen and understood .

The puzzle piece of seisan at the moment is ,or could for certain individuals touching that spiritual side ,but lets say its just mind/body mode ,the one we can comprehend with out too much difficulty ,special knowledge is needed to forge a path with the puzzle ,other than mind/body .
The puzzle can have the third side ,this is in keeping with the law of three ,three modes of development encased in a puzzle piece .
max.

The great skill of just watching loses out if it does not view from its spiritual eye ,but this must be awakened first ,and the watching would not come to scratch and meet the law of three in sanchin .
1. I was involved in sweat sessions that were pure physical .
2. I was involved in sweat sessions that were physical and mental .
3.I am involved in sweat sessions that are physical and mental yet have a spiritual side .

The puzzle side of matters will cross through these ,but the spiritual eye must open ,to open the third side of the puzzle .
max.

When working seisan move no1 ,obviously its physical ,when the puzzle is apprehended it becomes much more mental .But to get through the lengthy intro to sanchin taxed the mental part also ,the outcome singular mode is now ours to use ,and its quite difficult to make headway without singular .
To reach singular like and dislike need to be delt with ,and seen for what they are ,what is required is a clear view of the puzzle piece and sanchin ,now this is more difficult to attain than one may think .
Holding the puzzle piece is mentally and physically taxing ,this in its own right can open the third eye .
Understanding of the methodology is a must ,when we work physically alone we are blind to these matters ,again the methods have to bring the practioner to the point ,the critical point ,were as too much chit chat can thwart it .

The puzzle can have the third side ,this is in keeping with the law of three ,three modes of development encased in a puzzle piece .

In Thomas Cleary's book - Understanding Reality translation of an 11th Century Classic by Chang Po-tuan states that to refine the 'law of three' or 'three treasurers' one practices a type of moving meditation that is a progressive refinement ... a detachment of shifting awareness of the body to the awareness of breath; from awareness of breath to awareness of mind; from awareness of mind to awareness of space; from awareness of space to awareness of the Tao.

This, I believe is what you are referring to in your puzzle as:

Quote:

3.I am involved in sweat sessions that are physical and mental yet have a spiritual side . The puzzle side of matters will cross through these ,but the spiritual eye must open, to open the third side of the puzzle .

This is an internal progression/refinement which many fail to understand, which leads back to "why do I train?" Good thoughts, Max.

Jackie ,yes it is a shifting awareness ,you also make a sound point when you say "This is internal progressive/refinement which many fail to understand."

This is a problem of all problems ,when practioners/students come to these hurdels either by ones own effort or its presented in word form ,to students that fall in to certain patterns of thought .
As I look around me over the years I have come across lots of this lack of understanding ,Jackie I was one of them .You may not believe it but allthough searching in a fashion just could not get my head around meditation at all ,allthough I took to sanchin like a duck to water ,this was a mini puzzle in its own right for me ,I was searching ,yet I was very physical ,obviously I was not ready for the "shift" you mention .
The bulk of my beliefs attitudes etc ,were too influenced by physical mode ,there was always ebb and flow within me for search mode ,but it conflicted with all the influences that was my life .
max.

Its quite obvious to me the three kata that uechi-ryu expresses ,plus the other five etc etc ,were not created by masters that were totally physical and that was the bottam line of of development .
In line with what these forums are about ,we need to understand uechi-ryu from various angles ,and maybe the okinawans themselves did not have every angle sown up .
I think uechi kanei sensei realised that the west was emerging as a force to be reckoned with ,and will be quite capable of looking at uechi-ryu with their own eyes .
This is one reason we need our own search tools ,to uncover content that others may have overlooked ,or knew about all along yet were just waiting for us to do it for our selves .
The search tools can't be forged without input from the mental angle ,the spiritual angle is the third angle;when we form the third angle we become a force to be reckoned with .
max.

If I put extra and over time into seisan move no1 ,concentrating upon this and no sheep eye glance at other styles ,a further re-focus of all my energy ,this movement will internalise much faster and be more ready for instant on the spot use .
As Gem pointed out it is heavy physical and in my view worthy of mention .
Coming from a barenuckle father background ;I was already steeped in making or attempting to make things work ,now to my thinking I thought heavy work alone on seisan move no1 didnt break any rules on fighting as brought up with .
This is simple yet difficult to carry out ,its from this humble carrying out that other insights emerge .

To carry out something simple in concept yet difficult to carry out entails suffering I had suffered already with the three year sanchin not a easy path ,and further on in this picture of the puzzle the suffering fits ,it as a purpose or multi purpose ,that springs from simple yet direct thought .
Its rare we get to a new level in comfort .
So the start of the puzzle incorperates suffering within its framework .

Already mentioned ;for the puzzle to work across the mind/body/spirit modes of expression it makes allowance for the element of suffering .
Now we don't invite suffering readily ,but to solve and understand the puzzle within the law of three ,suffering will play its part .
1.To awaken to the fact we need search tools ,entails some level of suffering .
2.To obtain those search tools also creates some suffering .
3.Entering into search mode too involves suffering .
4.focus on search mode produces some suffering
5.All mentioned fall under the element of "TIME" which in turn creates its share of suffering .
6.Otaining density in tracking skills produces suffering .
7.Awakening within these six produces joy .

As we now see my understanding involves always some .
suffering /awakening/joy
This produces understanding across the spectrum of mind/body/spirit .
Also you will notice there are no7 involved within the mind/body/spirit paradigm .
As I progress within this framework I find the no7,this fits with the principle of enlightenment ,and also there is a simple addition/subtraction principle involved too ,for some thing thats awakening to emerge something falling under the heading sleep must be banished .
The law of three,and law of seven are within the puzzle framework .

1The body is in sleep mode ....it must be awakened .
2.The mind is in sleep mode ...it must be awakened .
3.The spirit is in sleep mode ......it must be awakened .
When these three are awake the no13 which is seisan can be created

Its vital we do build increased awakening on or across the three sides ,in hapazered methods of learning we can still solve things allied to the puzzle .
Basically I have tried to show a logical coerent system of working a puzzle ,one you can't solve without tracking skills,and you will not be capable of staying on the trail without a certain aquisition of singular mode .

Once seisan move no1 connects into sanchin ,you would have made a re-study of sanchin ,and a further increased search from top to bottom of sanchin.
In this manner we also head towards combat effectiveness ,and a bunkai now connects more smoothly into this framework ,at this point some analysis is more natural now a level of connection as been made back to sanchin .

Viewing /absorbing/connecting ,leads to new thought patterns .
These new thought patterns arn't really new to the ancients ,but they were to me .Within my research a understanding of how the mind operates when puzzle mode is in motion ,or becomes stuck .
The way we train seisan/sanchin creates the thought patterns ,just as how we train will be our reactions ,singular mode is a type of oneness that helps us break through into new thoughts of study in conjunction with the puzzle ,these new thoughts further inspire our involvment ,and its exciting to think in new ways ,learning to avoid stale areas of though in this way those stale thoughts will lose their power of keeping us stuck .

A search from top to bottom of sanchin ;means a search at a specific level of involvment ,its at a level of new search tools in operation .
Also if the foundation of sanchin as degrees of depth ,we now have something to search within ,but if sanchin was very shallow and superficial our search would reflect this .
Sanchin needs a certain density to recieve seisan ,we become this density to equate our level of sanchin ,now if we said this density was inner light ,inner understanding we would be close to the mark .
But understanding maybe more of a physical nature ,because thats my inner home were I dwell ,I see all things from this physical sense ,even though I am singular its riddled with this heavy physicalness ;observation of this fact lends more weight back to the mind ,light that is density enters the mind ,its within this framework that the first connection from seisan enters .
Now this reveals a picture of density in conjunction to the statement ,"a search from top to bottom of sanchin " when we bottom sanchin its at that aware understood level of density.
max.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum